#le crew

[miloscat]

[Review] Butterflies: Episode 1-3 (PC)

They understand the concept of love.

After Bomb Rush Cyberfunk wowed me, I wanted to take a second look at this even more indie project memorialising Jet Set Radio. I've played Episode 1 (and some pre-release demos) before but since then, French lead dev Le Capitaine and their Le Crew have finalised Episodes 2 and 3, and published them to Steam as a bundle. Supposedly it's still to be continued but for now the team is hard at work on an F-Zero homage. Hopefully they come back and keep expanding this because what's there so far is really good!

Rather than using JSRF as a jumping off point for gameplay, Butterflies seems to prefer refining what the original JSR was doing. This means a more realistic sense of inertia, and managing the momentum of your crew of inline-skating delinquents. The dash button is there to pick up speed on the ground and grinding rails is not effortless. It's clearly set on improving the clunky play control of the Dreamcast game though, and the result is fast, technical, and satisfying... when you've put some time into mastering it.

To get you there is a low-pressure kind of game design with a set of missions that populate the large levels. You can roam around, tackling them and finding tag spots as you please without a timer ticking down, which on its own is a big step up from JSR for me. These tasks are usually races that pass through checkpoints or specific line runs that require keeping a combo going—some in Episode 1 are particularly strict—while Episode 3 adds in extra graffiti challenges. Going through the checklist is a nice way of showing off these urban sandbox levels as you hunt for write spots or (as of Episode 2 onwards) collectible music tracks.

Each episode has one map to itself while advancing the overall story. The first two are hilly suburban areas, with a bit of industrial in E1, and E3 features a sprawling inner-city area connected by train tracks. Powerlines to grind on and the ability to wallgrind on almost any wall if you have enough speed help you traverse the high degree of verticality built into these zones. The first two episodes have an interesting grungy, sketchy look while the third revamps things with more colour and shiny detail. Populating the maps are your typical low-poly NPCs (I spotted some modelled on Lammy and Parappa!) as well as bear-hugging cops, flying police drones, and zap-projectile-slinging cameras: as of E3, these can all be dealt with by a quick application of spray paint (which by the way is unlimited).

The story is handled a bit more seriously than in some other street punk simulators. In this near-future world, a Japanese city has seceded and is now run as an independent autocracy by one General Sakamoto, and by the end of E3 the rebellious Nat and her growing Butterflies crew are gearing up to rise above petty rudie squabbles and vandalism to really fight back against the fascism. The inclusion of real-world cultures and concerns keeps the tone grounded, like when one of your teammates Jae (who tags in Hangeul) comments on the treatment of Korean immigrants; another, Zinnie, wears a hijab and interjects in Arabic, while Rin is a trans girl and you follow her journey of self-discovery in dialogue which I thought was handled pretty well.

On top of their characterisation in cutscene dialogue, these touchstones make the characters deeper and more relatable, more than just a cool cel-shaded character design. They also for the most part have clear strengths in their stat distributions; I favoured speed specialist Zinnie for getting around. Each one has distinct graffiti designs (they all get a refresh in E3 as well) that, while simple, usually include their name (in katakana) and tell you something about their personality. Writing involves a three-stage timing-based minigame so everyone has three unique designs, although you might find you end up with the simplest "bare minimum" one all over just to save time with the ~200 spots per map.

Since Butterflies has been released episodically over five years, it's interesting to watch as the new instalments make changes and become more polished. It's still rough around the edges even as of E3 but solid enough, and this release structure gives me hope that even more refinements will be implemented going forward (a better in-game map would be nice!). Either way, I've enjoyed what's there so far, and it's refreshing that multiple projects have been springing up in this vein while having their own character: in this case a little bit subdued, down to earth, but it's got heart.

[sibmakesart]

shanks has a Tabac in Croix-Rousse (get it ? Shanks le Roux. à croix rousse. get it.)

il fait un prix a sanji sur ses cigarettes apres quil apprends quil est devenu pote avec luffy

[cringefail-clown]

ive decided to polish out the coffeshop college au from this post so heres the lineup of the crew from Colors and Mayhem: Cafe and Pub lmfao

so in this au hal's a biomedical engineering major in the area of neural engineering, working part time in a cafe&pub combo owned by callie and cal - fraternal twins who cannot stand each other but made a co-owned business bc theyd not survive on their own in this economy (they couldnt agree if they wanted a calm little coffee spot for studying and meeting friends (callies idea) or an older university partygoers hot spot (cal) so they combined the two into the unhinged mess that it is)

besides hal, theres: equius, engineering student who breaks shit all the time but theyre understaffed as it is so no one fired him yet; damara, a psychology major with the goal of becoming sexologist and gamzee. nobody knows what gamzees doing here

basically its pure chaos all the time

[lilacs-stars]

wait okay I haven't seen anyone talk about this yet (and I'm really sorry if this has been brought up before, to my knowledge it hasn't, but obviously I haven't seen every single post ever), during "perfect revenge" when they first go into the dead fish layer thing whatever, and around the time where uliana says "find that perfect, perfect revenge"

HADES LITERALLY GRABS ONTO MORGIE'S SHOULDERS AND DOES A LIL JUMP?? AND HE'S SMILING AND HE SEEMS SO HAPPY HE JUST DOES A JUMP LIKE

it's soo cute 😭 honestly in my opinion it feels super out of character for him, idk why it was even included but like maybe it shows a part of hades that's super bubbly, which he tries to mask with his apathetic, uninterested demeanor?

but the way he jumped on morgie's shoulders in particular, makes me wonder more about their dynamic? like is it because morgie's so bubbly that hades is like that around him too? and the way that morgie was quick to agree to hades's "yeah let's burn her to a crisp" makes me wish we got to see more of them. like imagine hades always acting so tough and unconcerned around maleficent, but finally letting loose and being super excited and happy when he hangs out with morgie.

anyways just a thought, I figured it would be nice to point it out and see what you guys think about it. that's all for now! :))

(also now I can't get the idea out of my head where hades is being all chill to maleficent like "yo imma go hang out with morgie" and she's like "okay whatever" and then cut to hades hanging out with morgie where they're both squealing and jumping up and down like a pair of teenage girls while one of them spills the tea 😭 I'm sorry I can't this is too funny 💀 I actually need a fic about this like this is some top-notch villain behavior fr)

[leopardom]

what’s going on in my head when i go to bed every night:

[lesansnom]

Marco the FUCKING pénix

[pensat-i-fet]

[asparklethatisblue]

Just keep the morning a bay a little longer.

@swanfloatieknight wrote this lovely Fitzier fic “Sîne Klâwen” based on middle high german poetry conventions, of having a watchman warn two lovers that dawn has come ☺️

[bettertoadthandead]

Low poly pigeons 🕊

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

[ljaylmaoo]

I didn’t realize I actually had a physical (and extremely visible) reaction whenever I’m watching descendants ror and the VKs (specifically hook) comes on the screen 😭😭

My mom came into my room to ask for something (I still don’t know what for tbh) when life is sweeter was on and she asked why I was blushing and smiling sm which confused me bc i didn't think it was visible and she turned to the tv and saw hook and just went “oh”

(It was this part specifically that she saw)

[mllenugget]

I have only one word and one word only : CRI CRI CRI CRI CRI CRI CRI CRI CRI

"I intended to skip Purgatory 2 to catch up faster on VODs since I was told they were unrelated lore-wise But my biggest mistake was to vibe check all the new players - I was not expecting to completely fall head over heels for Team Capybara, hot damn I love them all so much ????" - Me, February 2024

────────────────────────────────────────── Support all the admins that spoke out (& do your daily click) ──────────────────────────────────────────

I took @sunshinetomioka's werewolf Guill headcanon and ran with it btw, credit to it

[saints-who-never-existed]

Y'know, as much as I want to see multiple episodes-worth of everyday friendship things and Beach(y)-episode nonsense, I have to admit that my train of thought today was actually inspired more by the thought of The Lads (TM) clashing.

More specifically, it came from remembering this gem of a scene from that very earliest pilot script in which it's not Irving who reprimands Manson for his refusal to enter the hold but Dundy (who is also described in the script as "impatient and shrill")

Isn't that just so fascinating?! Le Vesconte actively displaying callousness and poor judgement right from the get-go? Gore even being a bit antagonistic in the way he belittles Dundy as he leaves? It's such a fascinating thing to me and it changes everything!

[popcornoncemore]

Not my pinterest confusing my 1800's dead gay European ensemble casts for each other when I search for fan art

[tinkerbitch69]

Kiden Nixon will continue to haunt Laura Kinney’s narrative and yet marvel will continue to insist Laura is straight!

Who, exactly, do they think they are fooling here?

[ayyyy-le-simp]

Okay okay okay

Im back at it again

So we had many many people hear me out and agree with me on cad bane (cad babe) so I’m confident someone will listen to me on this one

But before we start: hiii cad bane nation how are you guyssss

Okay okay so hear me out

NO LIKE PLEASE BRO OMG

HES SO FUCKING ICONIC LIKE I BE EXCITED WHENEVER HE SHOWS UP CAUSE I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THE EPISODE IS GONNA BE FUN AS HELL

Him and Jack sparrow would be great friends

And yondu from guardians of the galaxy as well

They would serve

I can’t tell if I wanna be a part of his crew or if I wanna fuck him ngl

NO LIKE I HOLLERED AT THAT SCENE

[grac3nocturne]

Nami losing it over Vivi is my roman empire. She is so in love with her!!!

Put a thing for spoiler in case but Namivivi 1088